A Rotten Apple

[Upcoming novel: Don't Dare to Listen. Starting soon, please support it! Launching on Qixi, August 29.]

BUZZ Bar Street was the most famous place to pick up rich men. Xu put on a flashy show all night, but didn't land a rich guy. Instead, he found an idiot.

The idiot stood in a pile of trash, holding up a rotten apple he'd managed to dig out. He smiled brightly and asked if Xu wanted to share it.

--If I only had one rotten apple, I'd give you half and save the rest for your dinner.

A little scavenger × a clueless guy with no home

[Reader's Guide]:

1. The top is genuinely an idiot at the start and has no feelings before he recovers. Please don't nitpick.

2. The author treats both leads equally. They're both my beloved sons. Please, no extreme favoritism.

3. There is entertainment-industry content, but nothing is based on real life. The story and characters are entirely fictional and have no real-life counterparts. [Emphasis]

4. My writing skills are limited, and the story goes wherever it wants. If it makes you uncomfortable, please stop reading. Thank you for understanding.

5. To reiterate, everyone has their own tastes. If this isn't for you, please just leave.

There are completed stories in my profile. Please add me to your favorites!

Here's another story of mine in the same genre, about taking in a child: Don't Dare to Listen. This time, the kid is mute.

Zhu Qianxing was only fifteen when he brought He Xianggu home.

Fifteen-year-old He Xianggu was thin and frail, could only awkwardly write his own name, and was mute.

The little mute was pitiful and helpless. He gazed with beautiful, glassy eyes and signed, "Thank you, big brother," like a grimy doll nobody wanted on the shelf.

*

Zhu Qianxing spent three years scraping together every last penny to clean the grimy doll up and make him look neat and handsome.

At eighteen, He Xianggu shot up in height and his grades soared, but he still couldn't speak.

The little mute was good, sensible, and most loved to gaze at his big brother, keeping him in his sights like a wolf brimming with possessiveness.

*

Most teenagers are rebellious, difficult to handle, and full of energy. He Xianggu remained obedient and well-behaved. Zhu Qianxing worried that he might get sick from having no outlet for all that energy. But on the night the little mute turned eighteen, he climbed into Zhu Qianxing's bed.

The little mute's gaze was deep and greedy, his expression languid with satisfaction. He breathed silently against Zhu Qianxing's ear and signed with practiced ease: "Thank you, big brother."

*

Zhu Qianxing raised a hand to hit him, but the little mute leaned into his palm of his own accord, wiping away the indescribable mess on Zhu Qianxing's fingers. He silently mouthed, "Sorry, I got you dirty, big brother."

*

A long-suffering, self-sacrificing caretaker who has a hard life but can't help bringing home pitiful kids and can't bear to hit them, x a little mute who has plotted for a long time and deliberately puts himself under his big brother's palm.

Saintly big brother x scheming younger brother; pseudo-incest, a bittersweet redemption story in my own style.

Theme: Persevere through every setback, and bloom in the mud